Dissident Director

Everyone else wanted Diet. But this guy...well, he just insisted on regular. He’s the dissident. Goin’ against the State. The tide. The vote.

A dissident director is a member of the board who either votes against a set of new mandates that evvvveryone else went thumbs up on...and/or who initiates her own vote, which is pretty much the opposite of what everyone else wants.

Like…maybe they’ve voted to replace all the toilets in the corporate washrooms with bidets. In real life, a dissident director can dissent against popular board vote in things like...the company accepting a takeover bid at $58 a share in stock.

That dissident director might demand that it be paid in cash, because she doesn’t trust the stock market’s appraisal of the valuation of the stock currency being used to take over their company.

Another dissent might revolve around a company seeking to overpay for an acquisition. That dissident director might be the lone rational voice suggesting that they not pay 100x revenue to take out a competitor.

And the dissident director may also come from an operational perspective, in that they want to fire the CEO for poor performance...whereas the rest of the board loves being on the CEO’s good side for the selfies. And all the good Instagram ingredients.

Sometimes, all it takes is one brave soul to go against the crowd. Although, when it comes to the Diet Coke thing, uh…you may need to pick your battles.